Nerfed: Reduced shield value from 5 (more than Hoplites!) to 2 (That's what others with a shield that size have) because phalanxes in their current incarnation are virtually immune to missiles and far too good even when their formation is broken up. Neither ability is historical. They get +1 defence skill to still make it hard to kill them from the front in mêlée.

And no, I still wouldn't spam elite phalanxes because while they're virtually indestructible it's still a unit that really benefits from combined arms. If I disregarded all that and just wanted the most killing power they would be a contender, but heavily-armoured nomad horse-archers would be an even better choice because they're just as powerful and a lot more manoeuvrable and actually capable of killing skirmishers and the like.

Triarii: Camillan, yes. Polybian, no.